1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to golf clubs in general. More particularly, the invention relates to an iron club head and method of producing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Iron clubs are often used to make tee shots in short holes or to make fairway shots to carry the ball as close to the pin as possible. The iron club is also used in roughs, bunkers or other hazardous areas to clear these hazards. For these reasons, the iron club is required to hit the ball high and to place the hit ball as exactly intended with less likelihood of erroneous shots.
Obviously, the club head of the iron is required to have a lowered gravitational center for hitting the ball high (large initial shot angle). For this purpose, the iron club head need have an enlarged sole portion. Further, the iron club head as a whole should be as large as possible to increase the moment of inertia and thereby to enlarge the sweet spot area, as required for reducing the likelihood of erroneous shots.
As is well known, a typical material for iron clubs is steel or stainless steel which is relatively large in specific weight. However, if the club head is entirely made of this known material, there is a limitation in enlarging the sole portion of the head (as required for lowering the gravitational center) and enlarging the head as a whole (as required for increasing the sweet spot area). This is because such a design of the steel head results in an unacceptable increase of the overall weight, which has adverse influences on the head speed at the time of swinging the club.
One way to overcome this disadvantage is to use carbon heads for iron clubs. While the carbon head can be enlarged without an unacceptable weight increase, it has a new disadvantage of being easily damaged by repetitive contact with the ground or the ball.
Another alternative is to constitute an iron club head by utilizing a heavy core member (made for example of stainless steel) which is entirely enclosed in a cladding of a light metal such as aluminum or aluminum alloy. Such a club head can be designed to have a lowered gravitational center and an enlarged volume or ball striking area without much increase in overall weight. However, since the sole portion and ball striking face of the head are provided by the light metal which is relatively poor in scratch resistance and abrasion resistance, this head also has the problem of easily damaged during use.